2024/25 - Co-Ord Round-up Part Two - The 'counters' tables

Here's the table if that was all that mattered in the game was positive 'counters'. Don't worry it won't be. (Well, not on my watch!)

1. The Cow-Faced Juniors - 110 (one place higher than real table, 18 counters more than last season)

2. Trusted By Millions - 103 (three places higher, 15 fewer)

3. Cheese Makers - 95 (same place, 25 more)

4. The Wateringhole Society - 93 (same place, three fewer)

5. Real Muppets - 90 (four places lower, four more)

=6. Stanley and Gracie United - 84 (one place higher, six more)

=6. Aardvark Abacus - 84 (five places higher, 41 fewer)

8. The Fabulous Artisans - 83 (two places lower, 12 fewer)

9. Garth Crooks' Team of the Week - 79 (three places higher, five more)

=10. San Dimas High School - 78 (two places lower, 14 fewer)

=10. Claymore Athletic FC - 78 (one place lower, three fewer)

12. Markian United - 64 (two places lower, 17 fewer)

13. YTFIB - 61 (same place, eight more)

14. Nil Satis Nisi Optimum - 50 (same place, four more)

15. Mega Buck Bandits - 47 (same place, 26 lower)

16. Wheel Madrid - 44 (same place, 18 lower)

The CFJs and Cheese Makers significantly upped their totals on last season. The Aardvarks, Markian, Mega Bucks and Wheels took a big hit on their last year's scores.

The average counters per team is just short of 78. You can judge how you did against that.

Counters against plays a part in deciding the league - how did that list shake out and can you feel hard done by?

1. Real Muppets - 58

2. Markian United - 65

3. The Wateringhole Society - 69

4. Cheese Makers - 71

5. YTFIB - 73

=6. The Fabulous Artisans - 76

=6. San Dimas High School - 76

8. Trusted By Millions - 78

9. Wheel Madrid - 80

10. Stanley and Gracie United - 81

11. The Cow-Faced Juniors - 82

12. Garth Crooks' Team of the Week - 83

=13. Aardvark Abacus - 86

=13 - Mega Buck Bandits - 86

15. Nil Satis Nisi Optimum - 87

16. Claymore Athletic FC - 92

Ryan's team very much making the most of their opponents' lack of firepower. Markian less so. Only Claymore seem overly-inconvenienced by their leakiness.

2024/25 - English Team of the Season

(Same rules as before but England-qualified players only.)

GK - Nick Pope (YTFIB)

DEF - Trent Alexander-Arnold (Trusted By Millions), Marc Guehi (The Fabulous Artisans), Dan Burn (San Dimas High School), Levi Colwill (Aardvark Abacus)

MID - Cole Palmer (Trusted), Harvey Barnes (The Wateringhole Society), James Maddison (Wheel Madrid), Eberechi Eze (The Cow-Faced Juniors)

ATT - Ollie Watkins (Aardvarks), Jamie Vardy (YTFIB)

Subs: Jordan Pickford (Aardvarks); Jarrad Branthwaite (Nil Satis)/Tyrick Mitchell (San Dimas); Morgan Rogers (Aardvarks); Jarrod Bowen (Artisans)

Eight make it from last year's selection. There's a surprise recall for Jamie Vardy who last featured in 2022. 

2024/25 - £500k Team of the Season

(More of the same but with players from the bargain basement.)

GK - Emiliano Martinez (San Dimas High School)

DEF - Trent Alexander-Arnold (Trusted By Millions), Nikola Milenkovic (Cheese Makers), Marc Guehi (The Fabulous Artisans), Daniel Munoz (Claymore Athletic FC)

MID - Harvey Barnes, Kaoru Mitoma (both The Wateringhole Society), Tomas Soucek (The Cow-Faced Juniors), Bukayo Saka (Wateringhole)

ATT - Jorgen Strand Larsen (CFJs), Raul Jimenez (Cheese)/Jean-Phillipe Mateta (Trusted)

Subs: Nick Pope (YTFIB); Murillo (Trusted); Facundo Buonanotte (YTFIB); Jimenez/Mateta 

Pope, Saka and Mateta were in last year's 15.

While there are plenty of 500k defenders available It's getting more and more difficult to find a bargain in the other positions.

2024/25 Team of the Season

(All awards are made on basis of contributions in all WSFFL competitions. Where there is a tie, contributions in league matches take precedence. Then I'll try to separate them by goals scored. Then by lower transfer fee or followers on TikTok. If you see two or more names in a position I still couldn't split them. And I always do these in 4-4-2. I'm a traditionalist like that.)

GK - David Raya Martin (Cheese Makers)

DEF - William Saliba (The Wateringhole Society), Josko Gvardiol (San Dimas High School), Trent Aleaxander-Arnold (Trusted By Millions), Virgil van Dijk (Stanley and Gracie United)

MID - Bryan Mbeumo (Cheese), Yoane Wissa (CFJs), Cole Palmer (Trusted), Alex Iwobi (YTFIB)

ATT - Erling Haaland (Real Muppets), Mohamed Salah (GC TotW)

Subs: Alisson (Mega Buck Bandits); Nikola Milenkovic (Cheese); Harvey Barnes (Wateringhole); Alexander Isak (Trusted)

With just one player from the champions featuring it shows how well Ryan's team contributed across the board. Raya, Saliba, Palmer and Haaland were all in the XI last year as was Isak who drops to the bench this time

Van Dijk makes the selection for the fourth time while Salah has one more appearance if you include his substitute inclusion. Will the Egyptian be joining John Terry and Frank Lampard on the record-holding number of six in a season's time?

2024/25 Players of the Season

(Awards are made on basis of contributions, 'counters', in all WSFFL competitions. Where there is a tie, contributions in league matches take precedence.)

Player of the Season, Golden Boot, Attacker of the Season

Erling Haaland (Real Muppets) - 21 goals

Missed a chunk of the season with injury but still came out on top again for a third straight year. Albeit only beating the excellent Mohamed Salah by virtue of scoring one more league goal.

Golden Gloves

David Raya Martin (Cheese Makers) - 13 cleans

Another year where clean sheets were at more of a premium. Raya won this for the second season running and comfortably too.

Defender of the Season

William Saliba (The Wateringhole Society) - four goals, 14 cleans

A first win in this category for the always excellent Saliba. He edged out previous three-time winner Virgil van Dijk among others.

Midfielder of the Season

Bryan Mbeumo (Cheese Makers) - 18 goals

I can't imagine many of us would have backed Mbeumo to pick this award up before we kicked off last August. A great season almost propelled Matthew's team to an unlikely title.

Young Player of the Season (21 or under at start of the season)

Milos Kerkez (Mega Buck Bandits) - two goals, eight cleans

A shining light in Dave's team as he battled at the foot of the table. Can the Bandits hang on to him as other clubs take interest?

£500k Player of the season

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Trusted By Millions) - two goals, 15 clean sheets

A second win in this category for Beef's long-serving defender. A farewell present as he signs off from his WSFFL career (for now at least.)

Signing of the Season

Chris Wood (Wheel Madrid) - 17 goals

Dumped by Claymore after one week of the season, Paul W shelled out £15m for the Forest forward and it turned out to be a bargain.

2024/25 Co-Ord Round-Up Part One - Transfer Dealings

Last year I confidently predicted that the 2024/25 season would be our first billion fantasy spend transfer spend year. I was wrong. Both transfer income and expenditure was (slightly) down on the previous season.

Income

Across the league transfer income was down around £120m on the (record-breaking) year before. Four teams brought in more than £100m with one narrowly beating the £178.3m previous best.

Four other teams had income of £70m+ with seven not making it £50m this season.

Expenditure

A third year in a row of transfer spend in the 900m+ bracket. The smallest of those three though.

Two teams smashed the previous spend record of £143m in a single season. One other forked out in excess of £100m and two more broke the £70m barrier. At the other end of the scale ten teams spent less than £45m.

Overall

While not a record it's another chunky profit across the league of £160m+. One team made a nine figure profit on their dealings and nine more were on the happy side of the ledger, albeit only two over £25m.

Of the six making a loss, three were tiny, two were middling and one was hefty!

I'm going to say it again - Surely the £1bn spend barrier will be broken next season.

(Bear in mind that these figures might be wrong. But they won't be wrong by much. Hardly at all in fact.)

Overall Table - 2001-2025

 

	The Combined WSFFL League Table
	Seasons 2001-2025
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Aardvark Abacus	720	394	120	206	1660	1141	519	1302
2	Trusted By Millions	720	364	125	231	1603	1226	377	1217
3	The Cow-Faced Juniors (1)	720	350	126	244	1546	1249	297	1176
4	Claymore Athletic FC	720	347	125	248	1626	1323	303	1166
5	GC TotW (9)	720	339	140	241	1588	1264	324	1157
6	Real Muppets	720	325	142	253	1470	1253	217	1117
7	The Fabulous Artisans (2)	720	335	112	273	1389	1298	91	1117
8	Markian United (8)	720	308	129	283	1411	1315	96	1053
9	San Dimas High School	720	302	131	287	1322	1334	-12	1037
10	Stanley and Gracie United (3)	720	280	125	315	1218	1381	-163	965
11	Cheese Makers (6)	720	271	141	308	1164	1297	-133	954
12	The Wateringhole Society (5)	720	264	131	325	1205	1357	-152	923
13	Mega Buck Bandits	720	239	131	350	1064	1319	-255	848
14	Wheel Madrid (4)	720	219	138	363	1049	1448	-399	795
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	720	212	123	385	981	1409	-428	759
16	YTFIB (7)	720	180	123	417	833	1515	-682	663
	TOTAL	11520	4729	2062	4729	21129	21129	0	16249
	(1) includes results from Kylie Bumcheeks and Eleven Imaginary Boys
	(2) includes results from Prettier Than You and SCP Marmosets
	(3) includes results from Viola's Pier, Thommo's Titans, Melwood FC
	Dynamo Kev and Athletico Phoenix, formerly Stanley Athletic FC
	(4) includes results from Short Straw Rovers and Final Fantasy XI
	(5) includes results from Elland Road Big Boys and The Dead Parrots
	(6) includes results from 22-Legged Groove Machine and Bassett Allsorts
	(7) formerly York's Returning Glory
	(8) includes results from You Know Your Boston Rock FC and FCK2
	(9) includes results from FW LGXI